Sunday Nights

A bunch of bored, capable people with plenty of time on their hands -- a recipe for TOTAL CHAOS.

Some time before the opening scene, Baxter has committed acts of research and found a name to pin on the wrath entity encountered in Episode 5. He is in the Theta database as Shax.

A woman in a black feathered cloak sweeps into Kate’s. IV recognizes her at the entity she encountered at the end of Episode 4 and had dubbed “Hecate”. El Toro quietly clears the bar of civilians. She requests a return of ‘her’ cow hides and expresses her displeasure that our heroes had chosen not to re-curse the former bovines. She feels very strongly that once punishment has been laid down, it is not to be averted. Some bickering ensues about whether our heroes had done wrong, given their limited information, and regarding what right this entity has to swoop in an criticize. Only Mad Stan meets her approval, and she tells him to call her Mistress. When finally presses to provide credentials, she runs out of patience and snaps Kate’s wards in order to walk the hides out more or less under their own power. She leaves, etched in the table, a list of her names (long, though surely not comprehensive) as a calling card. Hecate is among them, as are Hela, Morrigan, Louhi, Isis, and Coatlicue.

Kate and IV take some time to repair the Haven wards.

Baxter shortly hears that Hecate has sprung Polyphemus from custody, presumably to be chastised for his dereliction of duty. When news comes in or some sort of raid or breakout from the facility holding the ex-bovines, it seems as if this is the next step. This impression is broken when the table shows new text, “Did you take my prisoners?” IV writes back in beer, “We thought it was you.” This results in “I see. Carry on.” and silence.

The results in some debate. On the one hand, the ex-bovines should never have been anyone’s problem but Polyphemus’. On the other hand, it’s probably not a good idea to let Hecate get any more annoyed, given her likely choice of targets to vent her annoyance. The group piles into Stan’s Van and the station wagon and find their way to upstate, where the mental facility is located. The ex-bovines appeared to have some sort of fit of hysteria and ran out into the forest and seem to be heading towards Canada. Stan interfaces with the police to track these activities.

In the woods behind the institution, there are various tracks, mostly left by the ex-bovines, but also including a set that seems to belong to a large stag. IV attempts to cast a divination and somewhat overcasts, landing herself in a vision of being chased by a pack of dogs and ultimately facing the pack and their leader, who looks her straight in the eyes and suggests that she give him a good chase. IV is able to pinpoint the likely location of their target(s), but uncharacteristically asks to go home instead of charging forward. The rest of the group, considering that a rather ominous sign, choose to return to Kate’s and check in with the Mistress.

Kate asks via table-gram what the ex-bovine’s crime was, and is told, “disturbing the peace”. IV reports her encounter with what she presumes is the Wild Hunt and the Mistress decides to drop back in. She figures that if she wants to catch the Horned Man and the hunt, all she has to do is watch their next target and take them down at her convenience.

We open in media res. In a clearing in Central Park, a werewolf in the remains of a postman’s uniform is hanging on El Toro’s back. Mad Stan and Baxter are moving around in the bright moonlight trying to take down more of the beasts and protect some civilians who have gotten into the mix. I.V., reasoning that werewolves draw power from the moon, calls in cloud cover, and holds an image of the full moon on her phone to try to influence the creatures. This also plunges the entire fight into darkness, with predictable results. Lily works out that these werewolves are all from careers that carry a greater than average chance of being bitten by dogs. She manages to scratch a glyph and free one of the beasts, just before the sun rises and the remaining creatures return to their human forms, either healed, or dead.

Stan, Lily, and El Toro abscond to Stan’s Van, as they are in need to patching up. Baxter and I.V. are picked up by the police as material witnesses. I.V. is released relatively quickly, as weirdness is not grounds for incarceration. Baxter has a bit more of a time of it, but does eventually leave the clutches of New York’s Finest without picking up any new charges.

Lily calls around to the companies whose uniforms were identifiable from the monsters in the park along with the names from the badges found. She is able to narrow down the likely locus of dog biting incidents to a long block leading into Lexington Avenue on the Upper East Side. I.V., demonstrating her usual sense of self-preservation, decides that she will attempt to “Tune In” to the werewolf vibe while walking down the block. She asks someone to come along to keep her from bumping into people and Mad Stan, demonstrating his usual sense of impending doom, volunteers for the job. They spot a charming local canine bounding its way towards them down the sidewalk, dragging his person in tow.
Mad Stan has prepared for this eventuality and has a set of shaped charges in a velcro collar designed to throw silver into whatever it sticks to. After firing off a distress text to El Toro and Baxter, he flings it into Mister Tiddles’ fur in passing, resulting in a fountain of blood, a dead dog and… the malign force trailing him down the street seeking a new home. I.V. texts him to let him know he is probably possessed, which causes him to behave in an unaccountably cranky manner, but he does stop and let her catch up. She pulls him into an alleyway and using the convenient dog blood she’d just taken a bath in as ink, sets a binding for the incorporeal.

On the plus side, the binding seems to have properly set. On the minus side, the force in question now seems to be not a common case of lycanthropy but an actual demon of wrath, which is likely more powerful than a quickly sketched ward. El Toro arrives with Baxter and Lily driving around the block. Stan applies a massive effort of will and extracts himself from the ward, leaving the demon inside the wards, where it proceeds to look like escaping. As Baxter starts to drag Stan to safety, I.V., demonstrating her usual sense of self-preservation, makes the mistake of challenging the demon, giving it the chance to leap into her.

As I.V. slowly begins to show signs of possession, the group moves to the stairs of a nearby church. Stan runs inside seeking holy materials of some sort, while El Toro attempts to contain the situation. I.V. has, at this point, become rather larger and stronger than she should have been, as well as developing a slight case of being on fire, both aspects causing some damage to her companions. Baxter and Lily manage some creative parking and charge in. Lily attempts to scribe another set of banishment glyphs, but the demonic influence is able to rewrite them from under her hands and the result is an intensification of the firestorm. Stan, holy wafers in hand, tackles the possessed woman, and holds her in place as Baxter and El Toro are finally able to do enough damage to banish the demon.

Stan and I.V. must both be rushed to the emergency room, as El Toro tries to come up with some reasonable explanation for how two people came to be burned, battered, and shot.

Some weeks later, as everyone is more or less back on their feet, a tall woman in a black feathered cape walks into Kate’s and asks, “So, about my cow hides…”

The Vanished

.newspaper reports family of four vanished
. IvLilyKate go to hall of records
. StanToroBaxter went to scene
. The area of v the disappearances was once all one house/estate
. Stan sees a creepy mirror and old stuff

cows take Brooklyn

A blog for your campaign

While the wiki is great for organizing your campaign world, it’s not the best way to chronicle your adventures. For that purpose, you need a blog!

The Adventure Log will allow you to chronologically order the happenings of your campaign. It serves as the record of what has passed. After each gaming session, come to the Adventure Log and write up what happened. In time, it will grow into a great story!

Best of all, each Adventure Log post is also a wiki page! You can link back and forth with your wiki, characters, and so forth as you wish.

One final tip: Before you jump in and try to write up the entire history for your campaign, take a deep breath. Rather than spending days writing and getting exhausted, I would suggest writing a quick “Story So Far” with only a summary. Then, get back to gaming! Grow your Adventure Log over time, rather than all at once.